Every day, more than 800 million girls and women get their period, yet for many of them, the monthly event is a time of shame and fear and desperation.

In some cultures, women are forced out of the home during their period. In others, they have no access to menstrual products and are forced to use dirty rags.

That’s why May 28 was recently designated Menstrual Hygiene Day, a day to remind the world know that women and girls shouldn’t be made to feel dirty or unwanted simply because they are menstruating.

Clarissa Brocklehurst, the director emeritus for WaterAid Canada, says the sad reality is that many women feel ashamed of what is a normal biological process.

“In some places, the taboo around menstruation takes the form of sequestering women, forcing them to live separately from their families when they have their periods,” she told CTV’s Canada AM Friday.

“In other places, it means not being able to use certain water sources, or not being able to touch certain things.”

Even in developed countries, there is still shame. A recent survey from WaterAid found that three quarters of women in the U.K. fear leaks in public during their periods. As well, 42 per cent said they felt they had to hide sanitary products on their way to the washroom at work.

“Many women reported they feel very insecure about their periods, that they worry about leaks and embarrassment and they have to change their lifestyle in order to accommodate their periods,” said Brocklehurst.

Women all around the world suffer from the same annoyances of menstruation: the discomfort, the cramps, the insecurity. But in developing countries, access to a clean washroom is a luxury.

Instead, women have to use common lavatories or squat toilets with no doors for privacy and no water to wash up.

That’s in part why many girls in sub-Saharan Africa say they stop going to school during their periods, so they don’t have to make that private part of their lives public.

There’s also a lack of access to sanitary products in many parts of the world, says Brocklehurst.

“We hear a lot of grim stories of women who are forced to use all kinds of alternatives to hygienic sanitary products,” she said.

Groups like WaterAid and WASH United want to help more women gain access to such simple things as taps in school, private lavatories, and reusable menstruation products.

“…These things are obstacles to women playing the full role they need to play in the lives of their communities,” Brocklehurst said.